- Okay good evening everybody I would like to welcome everybody and call tonight's meeting
- of the Monroe County Council to order. Today is Tuesday May 27th 2025 and the time is 5.02
- and I'd like to say for the record those that are here council members that are here on the
- dais I'll start over here to my right we have councilors Henry Iverson, Deckard,
- Wilt, and Vital. And so now we will go ahead for all those that are able-bodied to do so
- to please stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
- To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation,
- one God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
- All right thank you very much. Next up,
- we are going to go to item number three which is adoption of the agenda. Looks like
- we do have an amendment for tonight. Auditor's office is asking for us to
- table item 8g which is the health department which was the additional appropriation.
- Before we do that just for sake of transparencies um because we and government like to throw that
- out there um I'm going to look at the auditor Ms. Gregory and say would you like to give an
- explanation as to why we are tabling this discussion tonight? Sure I'm happy to do so thank you.
- Um upon review of this item um it was determined that um it it seems the appropriation being
- requested is for several leftover awards throughout the years not just one so a full
- reconciliation needs to take place and permission from those granting agencies needs to be sought
- prior to moving forward. We also need a new fund number um this is a state fund number and we need
- local fund number for that. Okay and so because our understanding for those of us that serve on the
- Sophia Travis grant committee that that was like four hundred and some fifty dollars that was
- left over from 2020 so it sounds like there's more. Yes I believe um some of it Sophia Travis
- money some of it is CARES grant funding and there was one other grant award that is escaping me
- right
- now. Okay okay so we will go ahead okay so that is an amendment to tonight's agenda that is being
- offered is to table um item 8g and definitely to allow the auditor's office to work with the health
- department um to correct those findings. Is there anything else that anybody would like to amend
- for
- tonight's agenda? Okay and now I'd like to say for the record counselor hawk is joining us at the
- dais so we have all seven of us that are here to do good government work. So um all those that are
- in favor of adopting today's agenda as amended signify by saying aye aye all those opposed same
- sign. All right motion carries so we have table item 8g and definitely. Next up we will go to
- item number four which is public comment. This is where items that are not on the agenda so if you
- are here in the night you hill room you get to come up to the podium here um you speak for three
- minutes and you will have a timer that will tell you um how long you got so you can go ahead and
- speak to items not on the agenda we like to say here in county council that all public comment
- is welcome the good the bad the ugly of all comments so if you have something that you would
- like to say again for items not on the agenda you can come to the lectern here in the night you
- hill
- room or if you are virtual you can raise your hand via teams and you will also have up to three
- minutes so i'll go to the podium here and see if there's anybody that would like to come up
- please don't be shy
- and if you come up i believe there is a sign-in sheet you just go ahead and sign your name
- and you can state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes
- jay patel good evening council members thank you for the opportunity to speak today
- my name is jay patel and my wife pina have lived in bloomington for the last 39 years
- we have raised our three children here and all of them went to the elementary school
- and the university in this town for us bloomington is not just a place it's a home
- we are the owners of the economy and on the south side of bloomington tucked away past the croger
- and the high school it's a family-run business and it's been our children's home for the last
- 20 odd years before they went on to make a career out of states for decades we've provided housing
- for bloomington residents via the trustee township not just the perry but also bloomington and
- other
- locations we've had construction workers working on major projects for bloomington and iu that have
- stayed for extended services and during the covet time many people had difficulties and that's the
- time when we took care of quite a few people which the township especially mr combs realizes
- on may 16th the tornado took most of our property damaged to the a frame the office and some side
- buildings and there some of them are irreparable but there are two three buildings that are still
- repairable and put back to condition we've heard several several losses from all kinds of personal
- property and vehicles and so on and this is the one business i depend on for my income
- more than 20 residents have been displaced due to the damage of the apartments that we have
- and the town trustee trustee has done all possible to house these people at many different
- facilities
- in town we are doing our best to recover but cannot do it alone today we're asking for help
- in two specific ways support to quickly reopen part reopen parts of the motel with minimal damage
- that is the back apartment building in order to get displaced residents back into housing
- assistance through grants and loans that would help us with repairs and damage of the property
- that would be fully appreciated we're incredibly grateful to the support of friends and neighbors
- in this past week now we're asking for support from our county to help us get back to our feet
- and continue serving the community thank you very much another note i thought i i already
- mentioned to you some council members but something surprising was we spent a day and a half
- gathering
- all the debris and many high school kids were my children's high school friends did all the
- necessary
- and the next morning we were exhausted waking up to say okay now to put it all into the dumpster
- went to do and a young man came by six foot tall and early in the morning and he called me hey hi
- uncle i said who are you and my son stepped out and so he was his best friend from elementary high
- school and everything else and he just said don't worry i'll take care of it next thing you know
- he has some massive equipment there and with grapplers spent a day and a half to two days
- with people and completely resolved all my problems in terms of debris of course now the
- new problems begin but no problem whatever you folks can do to assist not just me but there are
- many other people need help so thank you thank you we appreciate that thank you
- looks like we have another public commenter here go ahead and sign in
- state your name for the record again and you'll have up to three minutes
- my name is bhaveen patel good evening council members thank you for the opportunity to talk
- my father is jay patel and my mother is pina patel who owned the economy in on the south
- side of town i was actually born and raised there and grew up at the economy in in a small
- apartment
- in the in the back of the office so i was born and raised in bloomington went elementary school
- here in montessori uh tri north bloomington north and then eventually at iu and live elsewhere but
- anytime i come back bloomington is home and we've seen that more than ever from this last week and
- a half especially with friends and family coming from california friends who i haven't spoken to
- in many many years but have come out to support us my mother and father have always taught us to
- contribute to society we we do our own thing but contribute to society in the community and we've
- done that with my sisters as well through habitat for humanity through boy scouts girl scouts
- social activities throughout the community and you know serving others even at the motel
- working there when we were younger and growing up seeing the amount of support over this last week
- and a half especially for them seeing the amount of ex-tenants not even current tenants that have
- come by just to check on my father and mother to make sure that they're okay see the property and
- offer any support has been heartwarming we've been lucky enough to get by through friends and
- family
- and the support of the community in the city and now we're offering looking for you know ways to
- amplify that and see how we can have the guidance and support to move forward and open the motel
- and continue serving the community i think they've done a wonderful and amazing job for 39 plus
- years
- helping many people throughout the community i'm sure some of them will come to speak in the in the
- following weeks so we're just looking for support of the council of the city and county in the
- community to help this place get back up and running help my childhood home get back up and
- running and house as many people as we can in a safe and proper manner thank you very much
- good evening um my name is tamby weichel cassidy and i'm here kind of speaking about the clear
- creek
- area and i really appreciate your giving me the time at the microphone this evening to do this
- seeing the post office get just disintegrated has been a really tough journey for me personally
- since my husband and i own the llc that leases to the post office and so we're going through
- some really different types of approvals and things like that and having to you know hire
- professional engineers and architects to basically redraw that building and so those kind of
- additional
- expenses are going to make it tough for us to meet a recovery budget but i just want to bring those
- kind of things to your attention because boy i sure am not the only one i mean if you drive out on
- victor pike and stancifer lane and hide a lane um it's tough stuff to see so if there's any kind
- of um support that you guys can give it's greatly appreciated thank you thank you we appreciate
- that
- good evening good evening i actually already signed in sorry so um good evening my name is
- julie hartesty and i'm a resident of minero county and today i'm giving public comment as a county
- council appointed member of the minero county women's commission currently the women's
- commission's purpose states the commission shall serve in an advisory role to assist residents
- businesses and the government of minero county in addressing issues of gender equity in all aspects
- of society as planning moves forward for the new county jail facility i would like to comment on
- the minero county sheriff's office in jail and justice center pre-design report that was released
- on february 27th members of the women's commission have reviewed the space plans and while the
- decision to increase the overall number of beds to 500 is incompatible with stopping the trend of
- increased incarceration in our county and reducing recidivism of people penalized more for their
- circumstances than crimes committed we do want to acknowledge that this plan includes spaces
- designated
- separately for female inmates for detox bullpen video arraignment waiting medical and mental
- health holding cells and housing units and an inmate worker dormitory alongside that the plan
- also includes designated special housing units in both the male and female medical and mental
- health areas for housing marginalized genders we want to make notice of those plans and point
- them out to you all on the county council so that you can also keep an eye on those designated
- spaces to ensure that if there are budget cuts that require changes to this plan for a new jail
- facility those designated spaces are not part of any cuts and remain in place for the safety and
- dignity of all people incarcerated in our county jail the plan also identifies general population
- housing by number of rooms and beds but does not make note of any separation or designated areas
- for female inmates or other marginalized genders that is 384 of the 500 total beds planned for this
- facility and we would encourage more details be made available to ensure that people incarcerated
- in our county jail who are women and other marginalized genders are ensured the human
- dignity of being safe and who they are and not further punished for how they present
- themselves to the world thank you for your time and attention thank you
- i'm gonna look on teams and i don't see anybody's hands up currently on teams but again if you
- are on teams and you are a member of our public you also can make public comment
- and you can do so by raising your hands via teams um so looking to the audience here in the natu
- hill room if there's anybody else that would like to make public comment again you can come to the
- lectern here um and then last call for those that are online via teams i'll just wait a couple
- of more seconds and see and seeing none on teams um as well as seeing nobody else here in um the
- natu hill room i will say then that portion of public comment for items not on the agenda has
- ended and um as just a sidebar note we appreciate those that came out um to especially those that
- have been deeply affected by the recent tornado um to come out and and speak we greatly appreciate
- that as well as um Ms. Hardesty from the women's commission as well all public comment regardless
- whatever you think about public comment is welcome that is what good public servants do is we
- listen
- to the good the bad and the ugly of that so we appreciate that thank you next up we will move
- on to item number five which is department updates and departments um can give an update
- and you can do that up to 10 minutes so again if you are a department that is here in person you
- can come to the lectern or you can sit at the table here and you have 10 minutes and if you are
- online
- you can also raise your hand via teams so looking in here not seeing any movement
- and also not seeing any hands raised via teams as well um we will go ahead and move on to item
- number six which is the consent agenda items council i move to approve the following consent
- agenda item for may 27th a the highway department's request for a category transfer and fund one
- one
- six nine dash zero zero zero zero local road and street in the amount of two thousand two hundred
- thousand dollars from the supplies category to the services category and item b approval of council
- summary minutes for april 8th and april 22nd 2025 second okay we got a motion and a second are
- there
- any questions from council looking to my left and then look into my right yes councilor hawk
- not just a question but as a reminder the public that the transfer that the highway department is
- making uh is because of the harsh winter that they're putting that some of the projects on home
- and so this is for more funding for paving projects and the flashing and the trail projects
- and that's something i think the public would like to like to know that they're doing well thank
- you
- for noting that for the public okay anybody else have any other questions or comments on consent
- agenda items last call okay and um since we are all here we can do consent consent agenda items
- by voice vote and so all those that are in favor of approving consent agenda items signify by
- saying
- aye aye all those opposed same sign motion carries and consent agenda items are approved thank you
- very much um before we get into our business i'd also like to note we've also if you've paid
- attention to our packet tonight um we've kind of changed it up a little bit to just kind of
- have a better flow of the meeting i know a couple of weeks ago we had a a little bit of a marathon
- meeting here but in order for us to make sure that we are staying to task council member iverson
- and
- myself will try to do a really good job and making sure that we are timing ourselves accordingly we
- are sticking to the items and asking the questions um that are pertaining to the items that are
- presented to us during that time that that particular item is presented and so again each
- department will get 10 minutes to give an update or i'm sorry um to give their presentation and so
- your item or your timer will be listed thanks to tst on the screens here um and once that timer
- is done in 10 minutes we will kindly remind you or we'll give you a warning um and then after it's
- all said and done in the 10 minutes are exhausted um we will definitely let you know and then for
- council colleagues here um we will have about five minutes for a q a and i know we do a good
- job of trying to do a lot of our research ahead of time um but if there's anything that goes
- beyond that time frame then i will look to council members to see if this is an item that should be
- tabled um considering the topic that's at hand again not really trying to tell anybody not
- what to do here because i know all seven of us are all elected um but again it's to help with the
- flow of trying to make the meeting more efficiently and those that are here we can really do the
- business and do it in a timely manner so is there anybody that has any questions regarding this new
- procedure no okay seeing none we will move forward um and then we will go on to item number seven
- which is an ongoing matter that was an item that was tabled from our last meeting council as a
- reminder uh this item was tabled from the april 22nd and may 13th council meetings i move to
- approve
- the board of commissioner's request and fund 4914-0000 showers building operating fund
- the creation of account line 30006 contractual and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation
- of 2500 in the services category second we got a motion and a second i see mr jeff cockrell is here
- and again um lots of conversation that was had at the previous meeting where you sent all of us
- some information related to what some of us were really asking and i hope we've all kind of taken
- the time to digest that over the past couple of weeks but mr cockrell would you like to add
- anything else not not much i think i used my 10 minutes last week and so or two weeks ago and so
- i don't know if there's a whole lot to add other than yes for the the council asked for some
- information about the corporation which i believe i sent that night there are questions about you
- know kind of the statutory framework for how building corporations are formed so i forward
- the memo from a bond council who handles these kind of things routinely so hopefully that
- would address those questions i have not heard any questions that come back through the council
- office so hopefully everybody has a better understanding of what's going on all right thank
- you and i'm looking over here to my left of first to see if anybody has any other additional
- questions from mr cockerel related to this item no i don't have any questions i am looking i think
- everything is included in the packet everything that you sent to us so i would just um note that
- should anybody want to understand the answers to the questions we had that's where they should
- take a look i'll be quick i appreciate very much the additional information that was sent i think
- this item has been well looked at and reviewed per what the council is tasked with doing but see no
- reason that we should delay any longer on the matter simply because i think we got a lot of other
- things pressing on our agenda other than something that has been in place for some time now looking
- over here to my right and counselors have anything to add council hawk yes i did send a question in
- to the council office and they might have tried to answer this and i'm not seeing it though they
- might have i'm seeing that in the balance cash balance available is over 20 000 and so i'm trying
- to figure out why why they don't just pay for this out of the fund dollars that they have rather
- than
- do an additional is there a reason behind that i'm i don't handle this funding so i don't have the
- answer to that question and kim i think you were maybe a part of that discussion or heard it so
- yeah maybe you sent me the answer and i missed it i was busy working on cola stuff and didn't see
- it
- to last um this is a budget that has not been budgeted so this is the first and only item to
- be appropriated so that's why there's nothing in there and the cash balance is 20 000 so it's not
- it doesn't have any other appropriations okay thank you okay anybody else have any other questions
- all right and seeing none um we'll go to public comment if you have a public comment on this item
- please come forward to the lectern here and then that you hill room or you can raise your hand via
- teams and seeing none michelle may we please have oh um okay uh now we have a hand and if you are
- able to unmute please go ahead and do so and you'll have up to three minutes
- hey good evening council uh this is steph muchler a resident of Monroe county um i
- hesitated to make public comment because actually i had been looking at this item in the packet
- ahead
- of time and i admittedly had missed that it was discussed in a previous meeting so i'm kind of
- playing from behind here um but in reviewing the packet uh i had some sort of troubles just sort of
- understanding the function of this corporation and how it sort of all tied in so my original
- plan was to ask for some clarification as to the function but i hear that it may have been
- discussed in a previous meeting um i did review the information that i guess i'm understanding
- that mr cockerell sent in and that information did not really provide the clarification i was
- looking for but you may just say that his statement from a few weeks ago may provide the
- clarification
- that i was looking for and that could help resolve the confusion so thank you so much for your time
- and i appreciate all of you thanks bye thank you all right if there are no other comment
- or public comments then michelle can we please have a roll call vote
- yes yes thank you very much thank you and i would just tell the gentleman who had public
- comment i did not see the memo from the bond council in this packet so maybe if you reach
- out to the council office they could forward to that and i think that would answer his question
- okay duly noted thank you so much mr cockerel thank you all right now we are moving on to
- item eight which is the new business of council and this is coming from the highway department
- council i move to approve the highway department's request and fund nine one zero six dash zero
- zero
- zero zero ccmg or community crossing matching grant the creation of account line two three four
- zero
- zero bituminous and to simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of one million four
- hundred and eleven thousand five hundred dollars in the supplies category second all right miss
- ridge
- welcome good evening um this is basically and dot uh provided us the funds through the po and now
- we just need to appropriate it um because the roads are being paved um as we speak so we just
- want to make sure that the funds are allocated so we can pay the invoices all right anybody that
- has
- any questions or comments from mr ridge mr decker i just want to always take an opportunity when
- lisa ridge is here to praise her ability to have the hot hand with the state in bringing these
- dollars home and they do so much towards those the paving and other projects and it's just huge so
- thank you so much appreciate that and i'm sure we'll be asking for the help and the assistance
- in 2026 so remember that at budget time we could not actually participate in this program without
- that assistance we would not have the budget to be able to match these funds so we appreciate it
- i will just go down the line and i'll go down to um mr iverson uh i ask this question uh sometimes
- and so for the public that wants to know when their road or their street is going to be paved
- where would they find that information um they can contact us at any time we um usually list our
- roads
- sometimes our paving program gets adjusted and it did this year um basically after the harsh winter
- we had to eliminate some roads uh and then we had to add some roads that were completely demolished
- in the winter months um we don't ever promise that anybody's going to get the road paved until we
- have it awarded and done because of those circumstances we keep a list of every request
- we for paving we wish we could pave more but they can contact us we put all the requests into the
- list and then we evaluate them each year for the paving program again it's subject to change
- depending on the weather tornadoes uh it all comes out of one budget um so um yeah they can reach
- out
- to the highway department anytime i see if they're on the list um see if they're on our we've
- already
- started our 2026 list um but we're yeah we're happy to help inform the public anytime great i
- would say that's the number one one of the top requests i get is uh how do i get my street on
- the list absolutely it is yeah i it's yeah it's hard to explain um i usually give some examples
- of roads that we've chosen to be paved so they could go and look at the condition of those and
- we also have to follow an asset management plan that's submitted to LTAP and it's guided by the
- state where all the roads are graded a certain number one through ten um so and we have to go
- through a training now for that um so that's coming up but i think we do a good job of justifying
- what
- we choose to pave has nothing to do with property taxes or what you pay with property taxes it has
- nothing to do with petitions it's the need of the road and the the condition of the road at the
- time
- well said counselor henry you madam president thank you lisa as always i had a chance to speak
- with the steinsville town council president richie last week richie carter and they're very excited
- about the roads being under construction and torn up today so i look forward to seeing all the good
- work up there and uh i mean it's it's putting a whole new grid down it's really great so
- it's uh it matters very much for our rural spaces so thank you for that oh no problem glad to help
- them i'm glad they got their award and everything so counselor hawk yes can you tell us where they
- might look to see what roads are going to be included in this particular one i think we have
- that online we have a different procedure right now for posting on the website and we go through
- the it department it might list community crossing roads we also have a second list out right now
- that
- we're actually open bids on this thursday so we have some more roads to add to it but i'll make
- sure all those roads that are awarded are listed on on the website thank you all right and again
- just want to say thank you or thank you for all the work that you all are doing in the light of
- the recent tornado cleanup as well that should definitely go without mention because you all put
- some major hours in so just want to make sure that i know i said it at the department head meeting
- last week but there's nothing also wrong with saying that publicly so we appreciate all the
- work that you and your staff are doing with that and congratulations on being awarded the grant
- you're very welcome all right uh anybody that wants to make public comment on this particular
- item you can raise your hand via teams or you can come forward to the election here
- and then at you hillbrow and seeing none maybe please have a roll call vote
- councillor hawke yes councillor iverson yes councillor henry yes councillor fiddle
- yes councillor wilts yes councillor crossley yes councillor dekker yes motion passes unanimous
- thank you now we move on to item b emergency management council i move to approve the
- emergency management department's request and fund not 4938-9624 emergency management duke
- grant the creation of account line 22630 supplies and to simultaneously approve an additional
- appropriation of fifteen dollars and 40 cents in the supplies category second all right we got a
- motion and a second i see mr justin baker is on virtually hello good evening council good evening
- yes uh so in 2023 the council uh approved and uh this it was for 5500 um so and it was to purchase
- letter radios for the residents who needed uh working source um so currently we have 15 dollars
- and 40 cents left over for this grant and we are just requesting the approval of appropriation to
- close up this grant for 2023 thank you and looking over here to my right and seeing if
- anybody has any questions on this item for mr baker seeing none and then looking over here
- to my left yes councillor waltz uh yes i think this might just be a quick question for the
- auditor but what's involved in an appropriation to close out a grant what is that translate that
- please i didn't work directly with um mr baker on this however um it sounds like he's just trying
- to utilize the remaining um little bit of grant funding um and so appropriation will allow that
- permission to spend on something besides what we said we would spend it on before right if the
- granting agency has to approve right okay all right thank you okay anybody else anymore all right
- all right and so if anybody has any public comment on this item again please come forward
- to the lectern here in the night you hill room or raise your hand via teams seeing none
- maybe please have a roll call vote
- yes councilor hawk councilor crossley yes councilor deckard yes councilor henry
- councilor iverson yes councilor fein yes motion passes unanimous thank you and now we will move
- on um to item c council i move to approve the emergency management department's request and
- fund 4938-9624 emergency management duke grant the creation of account line 22630 supplies
- and to simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of fifteen dollars and 40 cents
- in the supplies category second all right we got a motion and a second mr baker anything to add to
- this no this was uh just the the 2024 grant and it was for a total of four thousand so we just
- had the six star 45 cents left all right and i'll look over here to my left and see if anybody has
- any questions on this item and looking over here to my right mr iverson uh yeah uh i believe that i
- misread the motion and it looks like item c the additional appropriation is not fifteen dollars
- and 40 cents but it is six dollars and 45 cents uh and i believe the account line should be two
- zero zero one one should i just reread the motion here i'm going to reread the motion council i
- move
- to approve the emergency management department's request and fund 4938-0000 uh emergency management
- duke grant the creation of account line two zero zero one one other supplies and to simultaneously
- approve an additional appropriation of six dollars and 45 cents i see that as a friendly
- amendment second thank you mr decker thank you very much for that just doing a little cleanup there
- all right any other or any questions here from right all right seeing none we will go to public
- comment again if you have public comment on this item you can raise your hand via teams or you can
- come to the lectern here in the night you hillbrow and seeing none may we please have a roll call
- vote
- councillor hawke yes councillor crossley yes councillor henry yes councillor fiddle yes
- councillor wilts yes councillor iverson yes councillor decker yes motion passes unanimous
- thank you and again just like we told the highway department you all have been in the thick of it
- with emergency management since almost two weeks ago so we appreciate all the work that you're
- doing you and jamie both and trying to clean up in the aftermath of the recent tornado so
- we appreciate that thank you very much thank you all right now we will move on to item d which is
- from the probation department council i move to approve the probation department's request and
- fund nine one four three dash zero zero zero zero jdai coordination the create uh creation of new
- account lines as outlined on the agenda and to simultaneously approve additional appropriations
- of five thousand one hundred fifty dollars in the supplies category and nine thousand eight
- hundred fifty dollars in the services category for a total appropriation of fifteen thousand
- dollars
- second thank you and now we have mr anthony williams here to give his presentation welcome
- thank you thank you back for our annual grant from the doc for our jdi or juvenile detention
- alternatives initiative so one of three grants that we received this one in particular is going
- to focus on office supplies licensing for our computer systems every juvenile that we have
- contact with gets a survey sent afterwards to them where they can provide feedback that allows us
- to
- work with iu on that um and then just committee and work group meetings for this one
- thank you and looking over here to my left to see if anybody has any questions for mr williams
- no looking all right anybody uh just big thank you for taking time to talk with me today i
- appreciate it very much absolutely thank you all right um i guess i did have one quick question
- so i know this is for 25 26 um is there any word that fund and beyond after this will continue to
- get cut a word at this point okay fingers crossed that will not happen okay thank you very much for
- that um and congratulations anybody that has public comment on this item you can come forward to
- the
- lectern here in the natu hillbroom or raise your hand via teams and seeing none may we please have
- a roll call vote counselor crossley yes counselor iverson yes counselor henry yes counselor hawk
- yes counselor wilts yes counselor fiddle yes counselor decker motion passes unanimous
- and we will go to item e council i move to approve the probation department's request and fund nine
- one four five dash zero zero zero zero jdai programming the creation of new account lines
- is outlined on the agenda and to simultaneously approve additional appropriations of eighteen
- thousand eight hundred forty dollars in the supplies category and thirty one thousand one
- hundred sixty dollars in the services category for a total appropriation of fifty thousand dollars
- second all right and same thing here but this is where the bulk of our community work comes in
- you'll see that we have partnerships with uh pals the parent project uh through family solutions
- our truancy termination program at ysb and the warehouse um as well so a lot of great
- work that we're doing in the community with these grant dollars very good thank you um yes
- counselor
- hawk yes uh regarding the the money for pals and do you know how that's going to work out now that
- they've uh don't have a great answer at this point i think it's kind of a wait and see as to how
- they
- repair um and we might have to make some adjustments to the mou and how that hopefully we'll be
- able to
- go on carry forward at some point during the year so the public will know what we're talking about
- you want to describe what pals is yeah so it's the people and animals learning services i had to
- look
- down to make sure i get the acronym right but we um send youth involved uh individuals and non-youth
- involved individuals um to their programming and they provide services to any of the referrals
- that we make um to kind of help youth some families that are struggling um at home
- okay anybody over here to my left got any questions council welch um you've got three
- agenda items here so on one of these i just have to say that um it's a pleasure to see this type
- of funding continue and i really um appreciate all the work that you're doing um in not only
- getting
- the money and continuing that um funding into our county and doing such good work but also the
- reporting that i know that goes along with it it's a lot and it's important and i noticed that you
- shared an annual report of all kinds of things um so we have our reading here um for the next
- few days anyway it looks like but i just wanted to say thanks and and let you know that we do
- appreciate it thank you as many of you probably already know christine mcafee she does all the
- work behind this i'm just the face up here today i did have a quick question so in the spirit of
- collaboration and being the the cats tv nerd that i am i like to watch other government meetings
- um and i noticed um one of the city commissions had said that they partnered with um you all and
- were supported by the jdai grants but i was actually surprised to hear them say that that
- was no longer a thing do you know anything about that i don't i know that we've had partnerships
- but i can't speak as to why they're not a part of it this time that would be a question for
- christine okay but i can try and get you an answer okay i appreciate that thank you all right
- seeing no other questions or comments from mr williams i will ask if there are any um public
- comment that would like to make public comment on this item please come forward to the lectern here
- in the night you hill room or you can raise your hand via teams
- oh and i see a hand raised via teams
- and it looks like it's from miss linda brady
- um we can't hear you
- uh almost
- oh no it's it sounds like we can hear you because the caption is picking it up but it's very faint
- maybe try again
- it's still a little wonky on our end
- miss brady we still can't hear you tst is there anything we can do to help miss brady on her end
- i actually just want to be a cheering section for her team yeah i wanted to give her an
- opportunity to do that so okay all right well we will move on i see fingers waving and hands
- waving so i'm going to take that as a good hurrah that's the new emoji um she's the live emoji for
- her team so we appreciate that all right with all the spirits that we have here michelle can we
- please
- have a roll call vote counselor hawk yes counselor dekert yes counselor crossley yes counselor fiddle
- yes counselor wilts yes counselor henry yes counselor iverson yes and passes unanimous great
- and again we got one more item with the probation department which is item f council i move to
- approve the probation department's request and fund nine one seven six dash zero zero zero zero
- jdai data analysis the creation of account line three zero zero zero six contractual
- and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation of ten thousand dollars
- in the services category second all right mr williams anything to add here
- no counselor or i guess yes counselor wilts commented about our annual report
- for those that didn't get a copy that's always on our website for access but these ten thousand
- dollars directly go to help in that data analysis of that annual report to give you the data that
- we
- do thank you for that explanation seeing looking over here to my right to see if anybody has any
- other questions or comments and seeing none and looking to my left and seeing none all right if
- you public have anything to say about this particular item again you can come forward
- to the lectern here in the night you hillbill room or raise your hand via teams
- seeing none may we please have a roll call vote counselor fiddle yes counselor iverson yes
- counselor henry yes counselor deckard yes counselor wilts yes counselor hawke
- yes counselor crossley yes motion passes unanimous thank you thank you miss james we appreciate it
- absolutely all right since item 8g again was tabled indefinitely um we will move on to the
- courts uh item h council i move to approve the court's request and fund four zero one eight dash
- zero zero zero zero court interpreters the creation of account line three three dash excuse me
- three
- three zero five two certified interpreters and simultaneously approve an additional appropriation
- of six thousand five hundred dollars in this services category second all right we got a
- motion in a second i see miss lisa abraham is here welcome um every year i get a court
- interpreter grant and our time frame now goes july 1st to june 30th i received last year and
- came before you to appropriate a ten thousand dollar grant unfortunately that only lasted me
- three months so i have to wait till three quarters of that time is done so once april i very
- quickly
- i think on day one applied for an emergency grant they approved me for an additional six thousand
- five hundred dollars which is for basically for may and june and then i'm waiting to find
- yeah you have to keep turning okay so i'm here tonight for the six thousand five hundred dollars
- to appropriate and i have an invoice ready to be submitted for half of that just for the month of
- may okay thank you um i'll ask a quick question since you just mentioned it and then i'll look to
- council colleagues here do you know when you will know if you'll be awarded they usually give it to
- me about the middle of june because it goes into effect july 1st so and i applied for that one on
- the first day it became available so i'm impatiently waiting fingers crossed hopefully mid-june you'll
- have some good news for us should be back before you hopefully in july yeah appreciate that yes
- counselor hawk yes the grant normally comes from the state yes and is that a part of the money they
- get from the feds or you don't know i don't think it has anything to do with the feds but who knows
- what if they're going to cut that drastically but they still allowed us to apply for it this
- next time so right i don't know what's going to happen there yeah last year i asked for i think
- 25 000 and i got 10 this year because of how much i've spent i've asked for about 45 000 so i have
- three jury trials coming up and each one will be about eight thousand dollars for just interpreter
- bills so i am that and see if you need an additional along the way at what you've had to do right
- exactly so i did on day one so all right any other colleagues over here that have any questions or
- comments from miss abraham okay look to my left anybody all right uh again we will go to the public
- for this particular item any comments to be made on this please come forward to the lectern here
- in the night you hill room or you can raise your hand via teams all right and seeing none maybe
- please have a roll call vote councillor fiddle yes councillor henry yes councillor dekert yes
- councillor iverson yes councillor wilts yes councillor crossley yes councillor hawk
- yes motion passes unanimous thank you all right um and just a point of clarification i think that
- mr dekert has something to say um go ahead thank you madam president i just wanted to really
- quickly point of uh clarification for council linda brady i had a chance to reach out to her
- briefly and she simply wanted to thank christine mcafee who does all that hard work on that jdai
- efforts so joyfully if anyone's ever sat through a presentation she wanted to thank her for that so
- thanks christine mcafee on behalf of linda brady and of course all of us
- thank you for that clarification all right next we will move on to county council business um and
- that is item a looks like we have some unfinished business from two weeks ago that we need to clear
- up council as a reminder this is the second reading of ordinance 2025-14 due to the lack of a
- unanimous vote at the may 13th council meeting i move to approve ordinance 2025-14 readopting
- procedures for awarding community service grants second all right we got a motion and a second
- and i'm gonna look over to miss molly turner king for her insight so i wasn't going to display the
- ordinance unless you would like me to but um this ordinance was presented to sophia travis um we
- talked through it actually this ordinance was not presented sophia travis we talked at the sophia
- travis meeting about what they would like to see as criteria for a citizen appointment and it also
- adds um how the appointment process would occur okay anybody have any questions or comments related
- to this item and i'm looking over here to my left no quiet tonight all right uh looking over here
- to
- my right counselor hawk yes uh while i appreciate that this is a very important thing to many
- people
- in the community uh something that once happened without all of the staff time we seem to have
- tried
- to make a book out of trying to figure out how to make it harder to get through this and i don't
- think it should be this difficult but if you all like all these rules go for it i guess my question
- you would be because i'm confused as to why you mentioned a book um can you clarify what you mean
- by that right i sure can thanks you know in the past this used to be done actually in the
- commissioner's office yours keesling did most of it and it was just boom and we all looked at it we
- said yes or no and now it's like set up and with meetings after meetings and staff time and staff
- time and more staff time and it's right in the middle of budget session and it's like well they
- couldn't get the budget stuff down because they were spending all this time on the sofia travis
- grant things and so i think it should be easier for the public to apply and easier for this council
- to make a decision and just not drag this on forever i mean it is but like i said if you all
- feel better about a zillion rules for it go for it but i just think it should be easier to do
- okay um and as a point of clarification um it is i would think that it is easier for us to do
- because
- we a have not ever been in the history in my four years and maybe i'm a novice but i've only been
- here for four years um the idea of this is a history that we've had 11 people to apply to being
- on a really good social service committee uh to to do this work and so i think we on sofia travis
- myself mr decker and miss vital are trying to make sure that we are doing things and a more
- transformative and uh transparency kind of matter because again we've not had this not trying to
- add
- on anything and of course in our sofia travis meetings if you watch those and you can go back
- and watch those via cats um and look at our notes we are trying to make sure that we're doing this
- in all ways possible and it doesn't seem to take up the time of council staff at least i don't want
- to put the words in the mouth of council staff um and i'm sure like as chair of that committee
- we make sure and i definitely make sure that we are not spending extra time on that and they will
- definitely tell us if we are um so again i definitely with everything happening at the
- state house and how everybody is having to shake up things and spend extra time looking at things
- um i think this is a time where this is okay so that's all i got to say on that um the other
- aspect to this is at the last particular meeting that we had on this since this was an item that
- didn't get unanimous consent and that's why it's back again um we talked about having a committee
- to interview because there are lots of people that are um have applied again and need to be
- interviewed so i think from my understanding at the last meeting miss turner king can you
- refresh our brain and of what we did there that was many moments ago it feels like
- so if the ordinance passes it calls for um three volunteers to conduct the interviews
- so it's not a formal committee but it would be three volunteers so if the ordinance passes then
- the president would request three volunteers to begin um the interviewing process of the 11
- maybe 10 applicants i think one person might have withdrew her application
- yeah i do recall seeing that okay and so i also believe that you councilor iverson that said that
- you volunteered yourself to the tribune for this i feel like i readily volunteered myself
- appreciate that and then i think our other two sofia travis grant committee people are
- people uh members uh councilor decker and vital are you all still good to go with doing this
- good to go okay again once we are done with this we can move on and appoint and do the business
- of sophia travis and and go forth and do good work in the county councilor wilts um i just the
- way i read this it means that every person who submits an application will get an interview is
- that correct um there is no language in here that specifies whether all applicants would be
- interviewed or if the three volunteers would um select a number of applicants to volunteer or to
- interview um the only language is that the president of the county council will select
- three volunteers to conduct the interviews
- so who decides who gets interviewed
- that would be right now it just says conduct interviews um if you'd like to add language
- to allow the volunteers to select who gets interviewed or if all volunteers
- or if all applicants are going to be interviewed i can add that language
- wilson other people if you have any questions i got some hands raised over here
- um i'll go to councillor iverson and then um councillor henry next i want to note that per
- council rules the time has now gone to zero so i want to encourage us to be uh as short as possible
- in the remainder of the conversation or i think that we'll be introducing another tabling vote
- okay and i would not be interested in table in this because we got some work to do so um councillor
- henry uh thank you madam president um i'm overall i'm supportive of what we've done here i think
- that
- um as i as i survey other boards and commissions in the county and how people find their way to
- them in terms of appointments is opaque um and this is while um seven pages uh thorough and a
- good starting block for us to to funnel into you know how we um uh add members of the community to
- this uh board i will say i i am a little lost in how we did the appointment process last week i
- think my name was evoked last week as one of the interviewees but i'm totally fine with passing
- that back to um the the other council members there um as we're sorting through that my only
- question is uh one that i i thought that um maybe councillor wilson i shared about the the document
- about um assuring or reviewing uh for the diversity of the board i think it's not lost on us in the
- county that um the overall diversity of our boards and commissions um is is not as um robust to say
- in the city limits when we compare our partners in the city limits or boards and commissions and so
- i know miss turner king you had mentioned some reticence when we talked about last week have
- you found anything in the past two weeks to add that would allow us to put language in here to
- encourage the committee to appoint folks from our diversity of backgrounds
- i still have legal pause i guess on adding any diversity language but i guess that pause is
- somewhat fact dependent on what language you specifically want to add if it's just an
- encouragement to the apple the individuals conducting the interviews to consider diversity
- factors i think that's fine but if you want to get into defining what factors what what diversity
- looks like on this committee that's where i began to have pause because i think one it's going to
- limit your applicant pool what if we have only one applicant and they don't meet the diversity
- requirements um and then i think they're once we get into defining like you have to be within this
- age or this gender or race that's where i seriously pull back on a legal pause i'll just say i'll
- defer my other colleagues uh that had a question about this that um while i'm sure that that some
- may feel the zeitgeist has changed on encouraging diversity equity inclusion in our boards and
- commissions outside of this county i don't think that's a line that we've crossed here in minero
- county anyway um and so to the extent that we can encourage that in the in the resolution i'm
- for it i just don't have those words tonight but i would defer to my colleagues that might have
- some different ideas about it um thank you madam president thank you looking over here as we wrap
- up
- the conversation counselor decker i don't have a comment on that other than to say um i think
- if i remember recall the list of applicants that had come in uh i did see uh a breath of uh
- different life experiences here in the community and certainly if i were an interviewer i'm looking
- at that in addition to the qualifications that uh have been listed in this resolution i did want
- to say really quickly i think it's very important for us to adopt this resolution because many of
- these recommendations came from discussions with current citizen appointees as part of that
- discussion and i think tonight we saw a really good example of another commission of the women's
- commission appointee coming in to offer expertise and thoughts on a procedure that the county is
- undergoing with our judicial and justice center and that is precisely the kind of thing that you
- want to see happening in a community like this um i think that the fact that we have so many
- applicants for this current year also is a healthy sign and that we're turning the course these
- boards and commissions can't just be things that people run on and then we forget about that they
- have to be things that have true citizen input like what you saw up at the podium like what you're
- seeing with this resolution etc and i think that we're starting to get there
- thank you councillor wilt would you like to share your thoughts i think that um
- i'll be very quick because i know we're over time i i'm probably not going to support this just
- because it doesn't address the concerns that were expressed at the last meeting and by me
- and um i think it if we're going to put something together um it should try to reflect the um the
- need for you know considering diverse points of view and um you know that's it i understand
- where you're coming from um i guess the only thing i'll say as we wrap up on this particular item
- here
- is um in terms of if people are going i would just say as council president and as chair of the
- count
- or of the sofia travis grant committee if we can um do interviews for folks and i would assume that
- that would be up to the interview committee to figure out if you know it's in order if they
- people can do it in a hybrid approach where people could come either in person or um virtually to
- make sure because if folks have taken the time to fill out an application i just want to make sure
- that we are taking the time to interview and look at those qualifications and not saying that those
- interviews have to do or be a long time i myself and my other day job do this on a regular basis
- and i know it can be done in a three-person committee with a lot of applicants so it can
- be done so i just i thank those that are volunteering to the tribune to help with this
- but that would just be my only word of advice to my colleagues here and also to take into
- consideration the different viewpoints that we have because there is a vast majority of people
- that are highly qualified to do this so yeah so i'm good on that all right so if anybody has any
- public comment on this particular item you can raise your hand via teams or you can come forward
- to the natu hill broom here at the lectern here and seeing no movement in the room and looking
- at teams and not seeing any hands raised um may we please have a roll call vote
- counselor iverson yes counselor fiddle yes counselor hawke no
- counselor will now counselor henry counselor crossley yes counselor dekler yes motion passes
- majority five to two thank you very much um now we will move on to another item that was tabled
- regarding the ksa conversation which is item b council as a reminder this item was tabled from
- the may 13th council meeting so i today move to approve resolution 2025-24 regarding a pause of
- the knowledge skills and abilities procedures okay we got a second and i'm gonna look at the
- dream team table over here um michelle and miss molly turner king would you like to add anything
- to this conversation um all i will add is as a reminder this resolution um ultimately if passed
- will temporarily suspend the knowledge skills and abilities practice or policy so that department
- heads can may no longer submit for consideration a request to hire applicants at the three or eight
- year level um salary level um it will make it so that any applicant hired is going to be hired at
- the minimum base salary as identified in the salary ordinance okay and i know we had a lot of
- conversation um about this and we got some items that were sent to us um via staff so i'm going to
- look over here to my left to see if anybody has any questions or comments looking over here to my
- right counsel iverson i remain in favor of this resolution uh i think that this is something that
- we've discussed at length uh to signal to our colleagues and partners in county government
- that we are facing incredibly strong fiscal headwinds and that we are taking this very
- seriously i also think that this resolution is uh written in such a way that uh the temporary
- nature of it uh signals that we will get through this and that we're going to get through this
- together uh and uh that's those for those two reasons uh i am in support of this resolution
- okay councilor henry i think councilor hawk had her hand up both of you raised it up at the same
- time
- all right i'm sorry oh no we're just going to my tunnel vision today um i guess my only follow-up
- question from commentary last week is we we had some discussion back and forth about some
- additional
- column or data about um some of the uh specifically some of the ksa positions that um
- if people had come in at a higher level and then had left county service and i i'm sorry
- they're just all escaping me right now but mr king you had my questions from last week
- did you have additional data points to share on this from our due outs from the last meeting
- i've requested michelle to share data that um our employee services put together and i think all
- council members um received in advance of tonight's meeting and i think that might address your
- questions um we'll check for it given we had a tornado between the meeting and last time but
- yeah i'm not blaming the tornado but i may have missed it right let me take a look thanks
- okay councillor hawk i know you had your hand up would you like to add to the discussion
- well i just wanted to reiterate uh something that you know we're paying for for financial advice
- and his his advice was to put things on pause and so that's why i support let's pause this and see
- where we're going to be because we still don't know what our projected revenue is going to be
- for next year so okay councillor wilts by that by that logic would
- it seems as though we would consider a hiring freeze entirely but we're not doing that right
- correct councillor henry yeah thank you um michelle are you able to put the the excel up the of the
- the excel that has the extra data on it on that's the ksa employment data just so we can take a
- look
- at that and while that's coming up i agree with um you know the sentiments of councillor hawk and
- councillor iverson that that you know i'm in favor of the resolution i just think that having the
- data
- and the public eye here will help to make that case clear for folks um as i'm looking at that top
- where the hires per year i think that tab
- yeah there's per year okay maybe i have a different if you scroll down to the employment data is a
- 5 20 to 20 25 that one yeah so like we're on pace right now we're um 2025 the number of ksa's
- percentage of hires is 38 i mean this will definitely throttle um where we are for the
- remainder of the year it seems like there there seems to be a trend line here of um
- quite a few ksa hires um in this year versus previous um i think it's just worth taking a
- look at there as we're um taking a vote but thank you madam president okay anybody else have
- anything
- else to add to this discussion regarding ksa's michelle miss turner king would you like to add
- anything okay consular decker i i've remained still a little skeptical that this is the fruit that
- we're looking for in in our dilemma and i also worry a little bit i appreciate this data very
- much i also worry a little bit that a high number on that 38 percent is indicative of a high need
- and i always go back through the history and context that come from past service but i can
- remember a time during the pandemic when we struggled mightily around retention the word
- retention bonus was literally a thing that came out of this council we were in here and they were
- trying to take down the tree i think for the year and we were still trying to figure out how to
- keep
- employees and i i i don't know anything solidly but i worry just a little bit that that we may
- not get the fruit that we need and we may start cutting as we used to say when i was a kid we're
- cutting the fingernails to the quick around the wrong area to cut so i i appreciate the sentiment
- of trying to figure it out i'm just not sure i'm a yes on this one okay
- okay anybody else have any last comments regarding this item so just to ask a question then for
- councilman dekard would you be then in favor of keeping the ksa so that people could get higher
- hiring in higher wages i'm bringing in what are you saying well what i'm i'm saying is when i see
- that number they're using it for a reason i mean we had how many do we have last time last meeting
- three to four ksa's and i'm not saying that's indicative that of anything other than they're
- using this to attract people i mean last literally in the last budget year what we heard from our
- prosecutor and beth hamlin's here so correct me if i got it wrong shake your head vigorously
- know if it's the case but she essentially said she can't get she can't hire an attorney to
- prosecute the cases before the community uh the sheriff often is in here on various things saying
- he's trying to find the the best deputy um i just i i worry i worry that this ksa is not going to
- give us the budgetary fruit and it's going to hurt the hiring ability leverage that our department
- heads have and we've spent so much time around that over the year since at least 2019 me sitting
- here that i worry that this is not quite the the fruit i'll follow as councilor hawkoffin says i'll
- follow the will of the council but i'm not i'm probably a no on this resolution although i
- appreciate the sentiment sorry to go so long oh but it is temporary and have i got that right
- this resolution is a temporary resolution yes so it could be brought back right so maybe there
- might be value in thinking about um doing it and then if you have trouble then bring it back and
- try to do something else or is there not value in that i would be in favor of again kind of going
- back and and listening to a lot of different things and it looks like our council attorney had
- her hand up i was just going to say that the resolution does automatically expire expired
- um the end of december of 2025 unless amended prior to that date by the council
- so basically what we're saying is if there is a vote today that expresses that we will pause ksa
- the resolution is set just like other resolutions that we've done earlier this year
- will set to expire at the end of this year unless we bring if we you know do this we pause it
- and we find that departments are having issues with trying to hire people we can revive this
- and bring this back you could either amend it to end it earlier you can extend it or just leave
- it to sunset in 2025 okay councillor henry thank you madam president i i i appreciate
- where this conversation is going because ultimately uh one variable here is if we um in a few weeks
- once we start taking a look at the local income tax uh from the state and how we're going to be
- able to use that or not in the next year that may give us the the strategic pause to get over uh to
- say look you know based on forecasting we might actually be in better shape than what we thought
- we were going to be in in january and so i don't i mean passing of this today does not in my mind
- mean that it is the rest of the year it means that we're buying some time until we really
- understand our our fiscal forecast which i know is going to require at least some uh adjustments
- from the state house to fix anyway before we get into what we think the lip is going to provide us
- locally so i'm okay with buying time and very okay with revisiting this resolution once we have
- more
- clarity so thank you madam president yeah thank you and the only thing that i would add to that
- before we move on a public comment is the fact that again in the long-term finance committee
- he did express the concern of us continuing on to do this again this isn't something that is set in
- stone if that is the will of the council that we do this and this gets passed where we pause this
- but if we again the state is leaving us no choice to figure out what we can do and we might do this
- and we might say hey this isn't something that is working um and again as it was discussed we can
- you know possibly bring this back for an amendment again we got to figure out stuff
- because the state is basically leaving us alone um at this point so that's all i would say to that
- so all right so i'm going to go to public comments so and we got a hand that is already
- raised so again if you have a public comment on this particular item you can come forward to the
- lectern here in the night you hill room or you can raise your hand via teams and since we already
- have a hand raised via team and i see it is our prosecutor that has her hand up i'll have you
- unmute and you can go ahead and speak thank you so much erica elephant prosecuting attorney um i
- you
- know i really appreciate the council um being good stewards of our public funds i don't envy the
- positions that you're placed in right now um but i really would bc to to reconsider um getting
- rid of the ksa i understand this is a pause i understand that you mean for it to be temporary
- but this ability has allowed me to hire deputy prosecutors with experience they don't often need
- to be trained in the law but they just have to be trained in the local culture and policies um you
- know the person that you approved for me two weeks ago has already demonstrated an abundance of
- skill
- in trial with jury selection is already serving as a mentor to younger prosecutors in my office and
- that's this is week three of that person's employment um this is not a dollar for dollar value i
- mean i
- just can't um i can't get by with paying people less than their worth and unfortunately i'm still
- doing that even when i do get approved for ksas because state attorneys are paid much more than
- county attorneys unfortunately and i understand that's just because they're in a different fiscal
- position counsel's been really generous to me to hear me out um but it it's just so difficult
- to prosecute a very complicated sex case very complicated drug case homicide crime of violence
- anything like that um when you're straight out of law school and you've never seen the
- inside of a courtroom and so um it really puts a huge burden on those of us who do have experience
- when we have so many newer people trying to handle these caseloads um you know i've had a lot of
- experienced attorneys apply in bulk at the entry level salary i just will you know we will have
- less experienced folks working in the office if if we're stuck and i'm kind of panicking at the
- moment because i have a deputy prosecutor leaving her last day is june 13th i've got to replace her
- and i'm not gonna be able to offer a ksa it sounds like and um you know that person's in a very
- important caseload the juvenile delinquency caseload that really works hard with the juvenile
- detention alternatives initiative to make sure that we're using restorative justice and
- alternatives
- to juvenile incarceration and it just takes somebody who knows something about the system
- and the and the law to really um do that effectively and to implement the sort of policy that i
- think we
- want to see in this county um and you know it's just going to take a lot more um supervision and
- hand holding if i can't offer a higher salary to somebody with more experience but i appreciate
- your time you listened to me a lot last week and i'm almost out of my public comment time so thank
- you so much and good luck with the coming year i'm sorry thank you um anybody else that would like
- to
- make a public comment on this again you can raise your hand via teams or you can come to the lectern
- here and then at uville room can i still speak or our time up here um i'll allow as long as we don't
- have anybody else i will default to you and then we'll move on to a roll call vote i know erica
- mentioned or the prosecutor mentioned that she's wanting to hire one it seems with that ability i
- wondered if there was a way to get any clarification of any more needs that she thinks she might
- have
- upcoming
- and i guess that other question um to council staff is do we have any more people in the pipeline
- asking for ksa request no we do not
- okay
- right well now that we've heard all that we've heard and exhausted conversations regarding this
- we got a hard decision to make so can we make uh can we please have a roll call vote
- councillor iverson yes councillor crossley
- yes councillor deckard no councillor fiddle yes councillor wilts no councillor hawke yes
- councillor henry yes motion passes a majority five to seven or five to two sorry five to two
- okay so that means that we are officially in a ksa pause unless we find it a need
- for the council to bring it back for an amendment okay thank you all right um moving on to item c
- this was uh this is the cola conversation that we tabled at our last meeting and this was a time
- for
- council staff to prepare the percentage versus the flat rate data that we all have been given in
- front
- of us uh today and so i'm going to pass it over to michelle to see if she would like to provide
- uh a brief overview of what we have in front of us
- packet, the fiscal impact estimates. Council approved for 2025, 41,155,881 in salaries.
- If Council goes with a percentage of 3% and this is based on our CPI from December, that
- would cost $41,969,095 or a difference of $813,214.
- If you did a flat rate of $2.28, it would cost $42,153,329, which is a difference of
- $997,448. The fiscal impact, which is what I -- let me pull that up. What I did was I
- went through all of our personnel, found out where they're at currently, where they're
- being paid, and then I attached them to the classification with regards to their step
- increase for next year. So, as you can see, this is a 35-hour grid, and I'm looking at
- the Comet Bs. We have 10 people at the one year, 16 at the three year, six at the eight
- year, two at the 14, and four at the 20 year. And then it's going to cost, just for that
- one classification, right there is $1,737,636. If you slide over with the same numbers, here's
- the flat rate at a 35-hour, which is $1,827,000. So, I tried to give you the best guess based
- on the information that I currently have of how many people we have where, and what it
- will cost overall. Based on last year, what we budgeted for salaries only, this does not
- include PERF, and it does not include FICA. This is just straight salaries.
- Okay. Thank you to council staff for doing all of that. That's a lot of work to put together.
- So, we definitely needed that. So, thank you, Michelle and Ms. Moser for putting that all
- together. Looking to the gallery here, and trying to look at my colleagues to see if
- anybody has any questions. I'm going to start over here with Councilor Iverson.
- My first question after seeing the spreadsheet that was sent out, which again, thank you,
- that's a lot of work that you and Courtney Moser put into it, was this concept of compression.
- How do we tell whether or not, if we've been doing flat rate, flat rate, flat rate, flat
- rate for years and years and years, the difference between what a Comet and a PAT makes gets
- to be very, very close, reducing the incentive for someone to take a job, a Comet job, because
- they could make the same amount, or vice versa, excuse me. So, that's one end of the spectrum.
- The other end of the spectrum is low compression, where the difference between a Comet and
- a PAT is wide apart. And my question to council office was, how do we tell? What are the metrics
- that we use to tell how compressed we are, and could that give us an indication of whether
- we should lean towards flat or we should lean towards percentage? And Michelle, I think
- you distributed this list, and I was wondering if I could ask you to walk us through that.
- No? Okay. No. Or I could. That's okay. I'm just trying to find it so that I can. Okay.
- This is me eating up all five minutes so no one else can talk.
- I think another topic, as long as she doesn't have to look up anything.
- So this afternoon, I just quickly tried to put something together just to show where
- we're at currently with regards to the percentages between the Comet and, as you can see, like
- a Comet and a Pact, it seems like there's a lot of concern. What I hear is that, you
- know, a high Comet person, you know, paying person, is maybe making almost as much as
- a Pact. And as you can see, right now, the current compression is at 79%. And so if you
- do a 3%, it's going to keep that compression the same, but if you do a flat rate, it's
- going to raise that to 81%, which means when you reach one, or, you know, like a total
- of one or 100, the Comets and the Pacts are going to be paid exactly the same. There's
- going to be no difference in that. So, and like I said, I just kind of threw this together
- just because of, you know, there's talk of the compression. So between a Comet and an
- EXE, you can see that there is a definite difference in this kind of thing. It's if
- you start adding the flats and you do a flat, you know, for over several years, which Council
- in prior years had done that, and that caused some compression, and then that's when we
- had to have WISC come in and do a salary evaluation as well as the job descriptions. And so that's
- when we came up with the new grids back in 2021 for 2022. So we've since 2021 have stayed
- with a percentage moving forward, except for a few classifications that you've given a
- little bit of an additional flat rate too. So that's why you can see just a wee bit of
- some compression with regards to the comets versus the Pats, and a little bit with the
- LTC versus the Pats. Everybody else is, in my opinion, is okay. If you go with the flat
- which, you know, and I don't know how, you know, FSG feels about that or anything. But
- if you go with the flat, I wouldn't do that again for at least several years, you know,
- just just so that we don't get into that mess where we're going to have to do another salary
- review again. Because again last year we did the flat. You did a flat to the comet section
- only. Got it. Got it. We did a percentage. You did a percentage and then on top of that
- percentage you gave the comet an additional flat amount. Got it. On the hour. The bottom
- line. Got it. Okay. That answered my question. Okay. Thank you. Did that answer your question?
- I don't have any further follow up. I want to hear what other counsels have to say. I
- have a question about the wage compression. So when I think of wage compression, I look
- at a classification and the range that classification pays. Is that fair analysis? Okay. So I guess
- I'm not sure. I mean, I've seen lots of salary ranges in my dealings with things. And I know
- that there's some overlap, right? So I guess I'm more interested in what the wage compression
- will do with each individual range, if that makes any sense. So is that what this tells
- me, this chart you gave me? Yeah. Okay. This is the percentage versus the flat.
- Yeah. Okay. Do you understand kind of what I'm saying?
- Yes. Okay. So if, so if you have, let's say for round number purposes, let's say you have
- 20 employees in, let's just call them numbers, level one, you have level pay range one, you
- have 20 employees in level one. And so now if you give the flat rate raise, then that
- is bound, depending on where everybody falls in that range of their salary range for that
- level one, it very well could put many of them very close to people at the top and skew
- that whole range off a lot of where they fall in the range. So that's what I'm trying to
- get at here. That make any sense to everybody? Yeah, I guess so. So this is my grids that
- I had and for Comet B, for the 2026, and this is the 3%, that amount, just we're saying
- one person across, okay? So that is the total across, if you had one person in each one
- of these categories, that's it. And then so then I took and divided, you know, put all
- those together and divided out and came up with, it would be a 13.8% for that whole classification
- right there. I don't know if I'm actually getting what you're, you know, trying to say,
- that there would be a, if it's equal across, I mean, you're not going to have much of a
- compression if you, if everybody gets the same thing across in a classification, if
- they get it equally.
- So then do, let's say there's a salary range in a classification, so then do the salary
- ranges go up along with the percentage or the flat rate?
- Yes.
- They do.
- Okay.
- Yeah, everything goes up.
- So like those years-
- The whole grid goes up.
- Yeah, the whole grid goes up.
- Okay.
- So if everybody gets 3%, the whole grid goes up 3%.
- If we're going to do $2.28 on the hour, the whole grid goes $2.28 on the hour.
- So it's not just an individual classification, so I don't see that a lot within the classification.
- What I see is when the compression is between the classifications themselves.
- So I think I'm with you now, but I think for me, and I'm ready to switch topics if I can,
- I'm interested in what it's actually going to cost, and so from what I can tell the $2.28
- an hour for everyone will be more cost to the county than the 3%, is that right?
- Yes.
- I've got that figured out, okay.
- So I think this is a tough year for a lot of reasons, and we just lessened the KSA ability,
- and so I feel funny about doing that and then going ahead and paying more actually at the
- flat rate.
- I understand.
- Councilor Wilts.
- I guess that kind of begs the question for me of why we have this dichotomy of 3% and
- $2.28 when the world is our oyster to some extent on we could say a flat rate of $1,
- we could say a percentage of 2%, or I mean, we could do other things, I guess, and basing
- it a little bit on what we feel is coming in, which I know we don't have a lot of very
- specific information yet, but this is typically why in the past we've left it at zero and
- then made the decision later, which I get is what we're trying to avoid because that
- makes it hard on folks doing the math, but I don't think we have to necessarily limit
- ourselves to just these two numbers.
- Where did the $2.28 come from?
- I don't think I know that.
- What I had to do is I took a payroll report and I had to dissect it down into how many
- employees, how many hours and the hourly rates and then I had to take it and do all of this
- math and everything to come up with the average hourly rate, multiply that against the percentage
- and then that's how I came up with the dollar amount that would equal a 3%.
- So it's the equivalent.
- The numbers don't work out if you multiply it out what it's going to cost though, right?
- No, and they won't.
- They never do.
- Okay.
- A percentage is always going to be different than the flat amount when you add it specifically
- to each hourly rate or the 3% to each hourly rate.
- I see a hand over waving at me here, so Councilor Henry.
- Thank you.
- So I agree with Councilor Wilson.
- The world is our oyster.
- I think there's a few different oysters to take a look at, and I've kind of taken this
- as sort of a sketch of where we can go, but I was kind of side barring with Councilor
- Hawke here, but isn't this fund dependent as well, depending on what revenues we're
- going to see in different funds?
- So there may be departments that are going to feel really stressed with this percentage
- point versus other, can you maybe give me a sketch of what you think the fund impact
- would be?
- I can't do that right now.
- That's fair.
- I mean, yeah, just ballparking.
- No, I can't, because then I would have to go back in and figure all of that out, but
- I don't have that in front of me, but I can get it, but it's just a different look.
- It's a little more granular, but it may help us see that.
- I can't say that any department heads have reached out to me, but I'm aware that some
- department heads have started to show some concern about the funds and how this may be
- a bit of a challenge for them versus other departments.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, I think departments that are heavy in employees and not many other expenses will
- find this difficult, in my opinion.
- Councillor Hawke?
- Yes, I think the original question was, what is this going to cost?
- I think that's what I heard in that last meeting.
- And so, it's pretty easy for us to think it would be easy until we have to really work
- the numbers.
- But what I'd like to see is, this is how many employees that we pay for out of the general
- fund, okay, and then how many in the healthy part, all the ones that are inside the frozen
- living, because we know that our increase is going to be tied to all five of those units
- inside that frozen living.
- And that's where we're talking about what it's going to cost us for the raises for everybody
- inside the frozen living.
- We know the highway department is not paid within that frozen living.
- So it would only make sense, let's say, if you've got 450 people that's inside that frozen
- living, then you figure out what that percentage is.
- Now I get it that the whole compression thing, but if we're just, if we're saying we're going
- to give everybody a $800 one year raise, go ahead and laugh, but we've done that before.
- Whatever it is, then you take the $800 times out for many people and you kind of get an
- idea of what you're going to do.
- Now maybe that's where the whole compression thing causes a problem, but there's got to
- be some way, I mean, we're sitting here saying yes or no, and we really don't know what it's
- going to cost us to do yes or no.
- You know, the highway is not funded with property tax, but with gas tax, et cetera.
- And normally, the domain has to always do the way we've always done because, you know,
- it's a whole different method of doing it, but it has been in the past that if we couldn't
- afford to give the rest of the people a raise in county general or wherever, then we couldn't
- afford to give the highway raise, or if what we could do for the county general, we can
- give them a 3% raise, 2% whatever it was, that's sort of what we brought along the highway
- with as well.
- I'm not saying that was the right way, but, you know, but at some point in the other,
- we don't need to know what the dollar amount is, and I don't see it.
- Yeah, I want to bring this back to the reason why we're discussing this tonight is because
- there is a budget letter from the president that goes out every single year to the departments
- telling departments what to expect.
- That letter has not gone out yet.
- We are three months away from our first budget hearing, almost to the day, and we also know
- that departments are going to be looking at Form 144s and the personnel workbooks becoming
- available in just three days.
- So we, if we're going to, the reason why I think it's important to have these conversations
- tonight is we do need to come to some type of a consensus this evening so that the president
- can send that letter out to the departments telling them what to expect as they're completing
- their budgets.
- And so there is, I think, a little bit of an urgency to come up with some type of a
- decision before we leave this evening.
- Okay.
- Councilor Decker.
- Thank you very much.
- I have heard some comments from folks that appreciate the effort to kind of get ahead
- of this now versus the fall, figure it out.
- And then we have the intense COLA debates that we've had in the past, and I kind of
- appreciate thinking outside the box, Madam President.
- When I have looked at this, and I also kind of have the, where's the 228 versus the 3%
- come from?
- And I understand that's an effort to try to make those on par with each other.
- I am worried that despite Michelle's good answer, I am worried a little bit about the
- flat rate getting us into some long-term compression issues that sort of manifest.
- I remember Margie Rice when she was working for us and not the city just saying over and
- over about the WISP process, how that emerged.
- And I remember, my gosh, how much we spent on that, both time and treasure to try to
- get it right.
- So the flat rate makes me a little bit cautious.
- Even as Michelle said, you don't want to do that then for several years, well, it tells
- me that it might be doing a little bit more.
- I wonder on this percentage option, if we were left with that, because the president does
- need to issue a letter and give guidance.
- That must happen.
- Having been in that role, that's got to happen because that's given her stress, them stress
- and everybody else.
- I'm wondering if the percentage role is where we get a chance to get a little bit to some
- of the fruit that helps us prepare potentially for the end of this, if that percentage came
- down just a little bit and if that percentage gave advice to departments to plan on that
- at a lower rate so that they weren't so stretched on the back end, trying to figure out how
- they were going to cover things.
- I also offer this.
- In my head, two to two and a half maybe starts to do something there and I'm just throwing
- that out.
- Given that, I will say this, I don't believe that because there are so many unknowns, I
- don't believe we'll have a number and then that ends percentage calculations because
- we have had to go back to the mat for less of good reasons and I think because so many
- things are unknown and the president's letter does need to go out and we do need to not
- be in the past of what we've done among all the change, I throw all those out.
- If a smaller percentage gives departments flexibility to work within this figured out,
- nothing we do here anyway until that budget is adopted means 3, 2, 2.5 or beyond, none
- of it means it because we could get into a drastic situation anyway and still be adjusting
- that but the president does have to issue a letter, they've got to go figure out what
- they need to figure out and that gives them the ability to do that, come back in here
- and say council, if you lost your mind, council you're doing a marvelous job, council we need
- to move this, that or the other and I kind of throw that out for some entertained thought.
- No, that was a perfect segue to what is the will of the council because again working
- with council staff we just thought that this would be a good idea to do this in a different
- type of way, again whoever sits in this president seat next year can do it completely different
- but and it's a challenge, I'll tell you that much, it's a whole lot of personalities and
- a whole lot of conflict to say the least and we're only month almost six into this.
- So anyways, because I can say I could write a whole book or Mr. Askins write an article
- about it.
- So that being said, again, just trying to think outside the box of what it is that we can
- do so we can give guidance to department heads, you know, do what is the will of this particular
- seven body member right now so that we can move forward with this particular letter.
- I would be interested in doing a percentage at or below 3%.
- I would, my understanding is that it's not any easier for our office.
- If we don't stick with what we pick, right, so no matter what we pick if we change it
- at all, they still have to go back and do all the math.
- That is why I just always went with let's keep it flat so that we don't, it's just
- easy to see what changes there are, and that was also my, you know, my own convenience
- too.
- So I'm not advocating that necessarily.
- I'm just saying that whatever we pick, if we change it, it still makes it, it hasn't
- saved them any time.
- I feel that 3% is a little high.
- I am very concerned about our ability to do this.
- You hear me on almost all of these types of discussions.
- I'm always a little, you know, more conservative on the spendy things.
- So you know, I think a 2.5 would be reasonable.
- Okay.
- Councilor Wilts has spoken and I see the right side of me is jumping over here.
- So I will go with Council Iverson and then I'll go down the line here.
- Madam President, I would join Councilor Wilts in a recommendation for percentage increase.
- I would recommend a 3% because I believe that our staff deserves to have meaningful compensation
- to fight against the inflationary pressures that people are feeling every single day,
- whether it's the grocery store or in other areas of their lives.
- And I think that is a useful benchmark that we can give folks.
- It's really clear.
- And I also think that the way that we've set this up, where we're going to departments
- and saying we're setting it at three, that's the benchmark.
- Now let's work together with your liaisons to get your budgets in right order.
- I think that makes a lot of sense to me.
- So I join Councilor Wilts in a percent.
- Okay.
- Councilor Henry, did you have anything to add?
- I mean, based on the draft letter, I have no changes to that document.
- I would accept it as is.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- Out of curiosity, does anyone recall what the state, I see a hand over there.
- I received notification from the court's administrator that the judges and the prosecutor elected
- officials are going to be at zero.
- I have not heard anything yet as of for probation officers.
- So I'm still waiting on that information.
- But the judges and prosecutor who we have tied our, our sheriff as well as our public
- defender people will receive zero for 25 to 26 fiscal year.
- Wow.
- That should tell us something, folks.
- The other thing that I would add to that is we did hear again, we have FSG, we have a
- long-term finance committee meeting for, and committee members for a reason, and we did
- hear Mr. Garrett to say at the last part of that meeting back in April that the average
- in what he's telling people is the 3%.
- I agree with Councilor Iverson that I think we've already heard and we've known that government
- and Monroe County government employees, former employees have left to go to other places
- and are competitive with the city.
- So I think that, again, while we are still playing ping pong of guess what number we'll
- play today, I think I would be comfortable with doing the 3%, the 3% to just kind of
- go from there.
- So...
- Yes, Michelle.
- I just want to say in the past we've always said a flat rate with regards to when you
- budget, you know, you tell everyone budget flat, budget flat, well, when we put those
- numbers into LOW and we give them back to you, it does not show what our actual budget
- is because it's not including any COLA.
- If you do set a percentage now, at least you can see this might be how much it's going
- to cost our budget.
- And so, you know, to me, that's going to give you a lot better number than in the middle
- of budget sessions, you're looking at it and going, hey, oh, you know, hey, we've met our
- amount, but no, not really because you haven't included the COLA in those amounts, which
- then if you include the COLA, it's going to change your PERF and your FICA.
- So to me, putting something at the beginning, like I'm requesting you guys are talking about,
- I think is going to actually give you better numbers when we get into the budget sessions.
- My opinion.
- And I appreciate that.
- Again, this is just what we're doing right now is not set in stone.
- There's no resolution, no ordinance that says that this day moving forward, that's how every
- single council president beyond me will continue to have to do this.
- This is just a way of us trying to stay ahead of that eight ball and just trying to be a
- little bit more transformative in our thinking when it comes to a budget cycle.
- Councilor Decker.
- Madam President, with that in mind, I'd move that the council support a president's letter
- with a 3% COLA to be prepared and sent so departments may begin.
- All right, we got a motion and a second.
- Any final discussion on this?
- Councilor Hawke.
- Yes, I support us moving forward with something because staff needs it, the people out there,
- all the departments are sitting there and they have theirs up against it trying to put
- this together.
- We do a lot of this work, each department.
- So I think we should move forward with something.
- I'm not sure we can do the 3%, I mean, I'd like to say 5% if we got, but at any rate,
- let's get some numbers together.
- Let's get the departments putting their requests together and see where we are on it.
- So will the letter say something about the fact of 3% initially or 3% subject to change
- or something like that?
- It's always a proposed, and so it's never set in stone until after we get to our last
- budget session.
- Love it.
- Correct.
- Yes.
- So anybody watching, this is not set in stone at all.
- This is just a proposed thing for us to give department heads to go ahead to get the ball
- rolling and numbers out.
- All right.
- Any other questions or comments?
- And I, again, just appreciate us moving forward with this.
- So maybe please have a-- do we have to do public comment?
- All right.
- Maybe-- And you can do a voice vote.
- Oh, OK.
- All those in favor of the president's letter to go out with a proposed 3% for the 2026
- budget letter signify by saying aye.
- Aye.
- All those opposed, same sign.
- All right.
- So ordered.
- So Michelle will send that out to department heads.
- And again, this is where I think Council Iverson said this, and it also talks about this.
- We talked about this in the department head meeting last week, is trying to work with
- your liaisons.
- We have done this before.
- Again, I know everybody can reach out and touch everybody's hand as much as you can.
- But again, we can all do, like I said, the good book says we can do all good things.
- But I would really ask for us this particular year, if you've not heard me beg and plead
- enough, is to work with your department, with liaisons, and two liaisons really working
- together to make this work, because again, we're out here fending for our lives.
- So with that being said, I appreciate all the questions, comments, concerns that I heard
- tonight from council colleagues and looking to have any particular feedback from any department
- or any employee that wants to give that.
- So we appreciate that.
- We have moved along a lot this evening, and we are at the end of the meeting where we
- have council liaison updates and comments.
- And I know we got some, so I'm going to start all the way over here to my left, because
- I see Liz with her colored paper and highlights, and she is going to go to town.
- So Councilor Feidl, take it away.
- Well, as I remember, we didn't do this on the 13th, so I think we have like four weeks
- to summarize here, right?
- So a lot can happen in four weeks.
- So I'll start with my 13th report.
- So I'll just summarize the things that I was a part of.
- I won't go into a whole lot of discussion because I don't think it merits it.
- I just want to know people to know that we're involved in things.
- And I've been working with the Sophia Travis Grant Committee, employee services, numerous
- discussions about a multitude of topics there, attended the Booth Center meeting where that
- was not finally passed on the 19th of May.
- Been involved with the Monroe County Fair Board Association at their meeting, long-term
- finance committee, went to the health department open house, did a downtown Bloomington meeting
- where they gave updates on a lot of projects they're doing downtown.
- I did a podcast with the 812 show.
- Yes you did.
- Thank you.
- I attended the 50 Plants Expo event, went to an AIC budget finance meeting conference
- in the last couple of weeks, DBI had a lot of updates.
- The most fascinating thing I found out at their last DBI meeting was this blink microtransit
- opportunity.
- It begins June 2nd, it's free and it's basically between 10th Street and 1st Street and Rogers
- and Indiana and it's Monday through Friday 11 to 2 and 5 to 9.
- This was done in an attempt to help people downtown with accessibility to restaurants
- and a multitude of other issues with downtown traversing.
- I was happy to see the Monroe County Women's Commission meeting representative here tonight
- and there was some good data.
- I suggest people look at that meeting, for instance, in 2023, 20% living in poverty in
- the county, half were female.
- They're working on getting, Juneteenth is coming up, June 13th, where they'll at the
- switch yard, they'll have blood pressure A1C and cholesterol from 2 to 9 that day.
- Then the last thing I participated in before the holiday was a redevelopment commission
- and the Westside TIF, the State Road 46 quarter TIF, Fullerton Pike TIF, and the Curry Profile
- TIF were all updated and approved.
- That's mine.
- You can always count on you.
- Now Councilor Wilts, you've got to follow that.
- No thank you.
- Just skip me.
- I don't have anything.
- I'm looking up Blink because I want to find out more about it.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- All right.
- Councilor Decker.
- Thank you very much, Madam President.
- First, I do want to say thank you, Madam President, for all your leadership.
- You have a hard job here and you do it very, very well in managing all of us.
- And our uniqueness and strangeness.
- And thank you because it's not lost on me.
- I also want to point out just a few things that I've been up to taking inspiration from
- Councilor Feidl trying to keep up just a wee bit to our new members who are doing such
- a great job is that in the last couple of weeks, I've been able to do a few different
- things.
- Number one, I was able to attend Mother Hubbard's Cupboard annual breakfast and to hear the
- tremendous work that they are doing.
- We have so many organizations that are fulfilling hunger needs and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
- is extremely strong in so many different ways, whether it's helping people with cooking classes,
- providing direct support through goods, but also through things like tool rental that
- folks can take advantage of.
- And if you don't know what Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, hardest name to pronounce, if you
- don't know what that is, why don't you give them a look?
- Because particularly for folks that are having some hunger, shortage, hunger issues, it's
- one of the many miracle workers out there in this community making it happen.
- I also had the immense pleasure to join other counselors this weekend at the dedication
- of the Monroe County Fire District's new station up in Washington Township.
- For those that have been following that discussion for some time, it is finally there giving
- a lot of relief to folks in Washington Township where we have many friends and neighbors.
- And I just want to compliment something, Chief Dillard and that Fire District in coordination
- with the other units in this county are taking every day, it seems, a more holistic approach
- to the fact that if you get something happens to you or your family, God forbid, on Kirkwood
- or it is out on Denver Road, your odds, your response time are better than they have ever
- been.
- And that is growth.
- And I always say this, the county can't continue to think about how things were in 1982.
- We've got folks that are demanding 82 different things to happen for them and their families.
- And Chief Dillard and the folks are doing such a good job.
- Also this Memorial Day weekend, I was able to attend, along with other counselors, two
- tremendous services in the community.
- One, it's the quieter one up at Rose Hill Cemetery on Memorial Day and it's led by the
- American Legion.
- And one thing that the commander of the honor guard said that I want to pass along to amplify
- his voice.
- There was a crowd there, but I think this should be heard.
- We have a lot of service members in this community.
- My rough estimate is of our 139,000 folks in the county, based on about 5.1% of them
- or so being veterans according to state statistics, that's 7,106 souls that have served this
- country when called to do so.
- The commander of the honor guard said something very interesting.
- He said a lot of times at the end of life, veterans will say, "You know, I really shouldn't
- have an honor guard send off when I have departed."
- And he said something.
- He said, "Whether you're a veteran or you're a widow, know that you took the oath that
- service is for you."
- So for all the veterans listening out there in this community, that honor guard's an awesome
- thing that we have, and that is for you.
- So I want to amplify the commander's voice on that beautiful ceremony also at Valhalla.
- I also want to point out one thing that can sometimes get lost.
- Here at the county, we have a beautiful Veterans Affairs office, two individuals that are always
- working hard to deliver results for veterans here with us, and that is Stephen Miller,
- Andrew Blake.
- If you're a veteran out there, and they come here all the time and talk to us, but if you're
- a veteran out there and you need help with the VA or other resources, this is a good
- plug-in that the county is proud to support, and I urge you to check that out.
- So there's a lot of good folks doing a lot of good things, a lot of heroes making things
- happen, and I appreciate all their hard work this post-Memorial Day weekend.
- Thank you very much.
- All right, Counselor Henry, you ready?
- Sure.
- Thank you, Madam President.
- I just want to limit my comments to some of the things we've heard tonight from public
- comment and maybe put a coda on the KSA discussion.
- I think I appreciate the discussion we had on the KSAs this evening.
- I think the data that the staff is able to pull together in the past two weeks gave me
- a different insight into what I was looking for, and I think the thing that jumps out
- at me is when we look at departments that have frequently used KSAs as a hiring practice
- to bring people into the county, that that's a signal to me there may be something wrong
- with the bans that we have and not so much the KSAs that keep being offered.
- So it gives me pause when I see a department or department heads come to say, look, we
- really use this, but if they're using it all the time and they're hiring, we may need to
- really take that back to PAC once we open up the shutters on PAC and revisiting that.
- We shouldn't be in a case where people have to bring a KSA every time they want to hire
- a position.
- And so that has my attention a lot of times when they want to hire a position.
- So I just want to maybe put an end point on that discussion tonight from my seat.
- There are so many people to thank in the community for our tornado response that we had over
- this past week.
- I was about a quarter mile from the touchdown location and it was not lost.
- I mean, just how incredibly close.
- If that tornado was a quarter mile north, we wouldn't be talking about modest damage
- in our community.
- But for those families that did experience damage, it's very important I think for us
- as elected officials to keep the story in the media.
- The headlines are going to change very quickly in our community over the summer, but these
- families are going to be facing four, six years worth of months and year worth of rebuilding.
- We heard from, of course, folks that own the economy in this evening.
- So if I become a bit of a, you know, if I keep beating this drum every other week here,
- I may be doing that for the rest of the year until we know that these folks have been made
- whole or whatever their new normal is going to be in our community.
- That's 80 properties that were affected in this way, it's not a small number.
- So of course, I know I occupy the Planning Commission seat for the council, and I'll
- just share with you all that I have an increasing concern.
- I've heard a lot from homeowners in the community who are affected to make sure that our new
- county development organs does not get in the way of recovery, that it is a tool and
- not an impediment.
- And so if there are people listening to this, which I know the whole community tunes in,
- if there are issues that you're experiencing in your rebuild, and if we have corners of
- our county government that you feel are not being as efficient about building permits
- and coding issues, do let me know, and of course let our Planning Commission partners
- know that we need to make sure we rebuild as swiftly as we can within the footprints
- that are available to the current footprints of those properties that were lost.
- I would also say that I want to give credit to Perry Township.
- I spent most of that weekend off and on with Perry Township Trustee Dan Combs as we were
- constantly texting each other and roving around our two townships trying to figure out what
- was going on in the community.
- Dan and his team have really lifted a lot of people during the crisis point, and I would
- just say it's something that I teach in my Emergency Management class that natural hazards
- are not disasters.
- What makes disasters are human choices about where we build and how we zone and how we
- respond and recover to things, and for some folks who are already on township assistance
- that have now been displaced again and spent time in a Red Cross shelter and are now staying
- in other housing in the community, I do believe that we sometimes look at our townships as
- Emergency Management.
- They're not FEMA.
- They provide a very specific service for our community, and we need to think through that
- in the future on how a lot of our township trustees carry this burden in a time of crisis.
- Lastly I want to just make one more highlight or comment.
- Dr. Deckard already talked a little bit about our Monroe Fire Protection District.
- By the next morning I was in Harrodsburg for their festival and was speaking with Monroe
- Fire District personnel, and they had already had within 12 hours 150 homes adjudicated
- in an app that they use when they go out to a property to take a look at the property
- and start to adjudicate the damage to it.
- That app was brought by Chief Dillard from Indiana Task Force 1, which is an urban search
- and rescue task force that he's a part of that's FEMA funded in the state of Indiana.
- He had the foresight to bring the app into our county and start using that on deployment
- that night to capture really great data on what homes were really damaged and what ones
- were not damaged.
- That is a FEMA funded program that directly impacted our community yet again.
- So again, if I become the emergency management drum beat down here, there's a reason for
- it.
- There are a lot of really good tools that come into our community and a lot of great
- folks that were working that issue.
- Let's keep all those folks in our thoughts in the next weeks and months ahead as this
- is not over for them.
- Thank you, Madam President.
- Councillor Iverson.
- Thank you, Madam President.
- You know, Monroe County really is a special place.
- Just hearing from the folks that came tonight to talk so passionately about their businesses
- that were destroyed by the tornado reminds us all that this is a community that comes
- together and I'm looking forward to continuing to work together to bring people together.
- One of the commissions that I attended over the past four weeks was the Resilience Commission
- where we heard from Maggie Sullivan from the Friends of Lake Monroe about some of the efforts
- that they're making this summer and into the fall to make sure that our source of drinking
- water and recreation remains resilient in the face of climate change.
- We looked at the updates to the climate plan and we added some extra items there that the
- county is going to be working on.
- I'm hearing my voice or someone calling my name right now.
- I muted him.
- Alright thank you, the voice of God coming down.
- So the Resilience Commission continue to look at their website.
- They're going to be updating that very quickly.
- The next meeting that I think I want to bring to people's attention is the Substance Use
- Disorder Advisory Commission.
- We were really heartened by federal data that in the year 2024 we had a 26% drop in fatalities
- due to substance use disorder.
- That's nationwide data, but we saw that same drop here in Monroe County, but we need federal
- funding to make sure that we have resources from SAMHSA to continue doing the harm reduction
- work that we're doing.
- The federal cuts are not helping.
- They will lead to an increased number of deaths in our community as an increased number of
- cocktails in the form of illicit drugs come into this community.
- We're very concerned about that.
- We also convened the Opioid Settlement Body.
- That group recommended that the commissioners tackle three different appropriations from
- those funds that we kind of kept from previous workings.
- So keep in touch with the commissioners meeting as those three items come up.
- I was also there at the Fire Protection District.
- This is Station 26 in Washington Township, and I'm really excited about that new station
- coming on board because my district includes some of those northern communities like Dolan
- and Hindustan that need this fire protection, and of course this benefits folks as their
- insurance rates are going to be helped by having this additional fire protection up
- there.
- We're really excited by that.
- I want to echo my colleagues' statements that the Monroe County Fire Protection District
- was on top of the response during the storm.
- In an email sent out on the 20th of this month, Chief Dustin Dillard wrote his initial response
- in how they tackled the tornado, and it was just a reminder of how our first responders
- were there on the scene doing what they needed to do to keep the residents safe.
- Again, zero fatalities, so we're really encouraged by that, particularly as we look to the warmer
- months of this year as the potential for additional storms is in their forecast potentially.
- I also attended Memorial Day festivities, and I want to particularly thank Steve Miller
- and Andrew Blake for their services to our veterans in our community.
- I also want to highlight Brad Thompson.
- He's the head of the Civil Air Patrol.
- His youth came to the council to give a presentation not too long ago, and they were there doing
- color guard activities on that Memorial Day service.
- That was really meaningful to be able to talk to some of those youth again, and it was just
- a really great day to be out there with all of our veterans with us.
- The last thing that I will mention is that it is time for folks to start calling your
- U.S. senators.
- The budget bomb that came out of the U.S. House is making significant cuts to Medicaid.
- The only reason I'm bringing this up is because it is personal for me.
- My family would not have resources to continue to be in this community if it were not for
- Medicaid waivers.
- The cuts in this bill will significantly impact people's lives.
- Call your senators.
- This is a budget bomb that will increase our debt for the next 10 years to the tunes of
- not millions, not billions, but trillions on the backs of the poor and the disabled.
- This is unconscionable, and we have to do something to stop this.
- Thank you.
- Now I get to follow you.
- That's hard.
- So I appreciate that.
- Thank you.
- And I will say, and reflecting on tonight's conversation, there's obviously, like, hard
- decisions that we all had to make today, and there were a lot of different opinions, but
- I think we do those with heavy hearts because of what we have up against us right now.
- So I just want to say to all of the colleagues, thank you very, very much for all of the debates.
- Even those debates that we have that are disagreements, you know, we did some good stuff.
- I will tell you, it is very stressful sitting in this role as president, but I'm new to
- this, but I'm also true to this.
- Under all these beautiful extensions, there's a lot of gray hair, but I'm up for the challenge.
- So there you go.
- Like to hear it.
- Here it goes.
- What has happened over the past several weeks, but I will keep my comments somewhat brief.
- I will express that we learned in a tornado briefing with emergency management, I think
- we heard 22 structures were destroyed, 33 were completely destroyed.
- This is also personal for me because I live on the south side near the Clear Creek area
- where it literally jumped over our neighborhood where our household saw it, and then it went
- down the road.
- So while I don't know why we were spared, I can say two minutes down the road because
- it don't stay very far from Economy Inn and some of the Cardinal Glen area.
- They were not spared.
- And I just want to say that I appreciate the public comment that came in to talk very passionately.
- The pictures that we've seen of the post office and the damage driven around in the neighborhoods
- and in that particular area and seen it.
- I just want to give also a special shout out to Perry Clear Creek Station 22 Fire Department
- and Fire Station because they were also definitely in the thick of it.
- So any type of department in Monroe County that had something to do with that.
- Also the assessor's office had to go out and assess the damage.
- We say thank you because those are long hours that you clocked and will continue to do so.
- So we definitely appreciate that.
- Some other things that I wanted to say and I lost my page.
- Some fun things that we have that are coming up on the horizon is next Tuesday at 330 is
- the moment that we all, maybe some, have been waiting for and it is the groundbreaking of
- the convention center that I just, you know, former council member Jeff McKim and our beloved
- former council member, the late and great Cheryl Munson worked really hard in making
- sure this day has come and it will be here next Tuesday at 330.
- I will be giving some brief remarks.
- I believe Commissioner Julie Thomas will also be giving some remarks as well as some of
- our city elected officials as well.
- So I'm looking forward to this day.
- I'm looking forward to all the headache, all the blood, sweat and tears that will come
- and have come beforehand will finally pay off and we will really see this come to light.
- So I'm looking forward to that.
- The other thing that I will, vote center, I'm not even going to go there with that.
- So we know what happened and that's, it's a shame.
- The other part is I was a little dismayed and hearing some conversations in one of our
- recent meetings and something I heard that I didn't think that was true that I really
- wanted to make sure that it has been said, I know somebody at the health board meeting
- had mentioned that the county is under a higher end freeze and we are not.
- So I just really want to make sure that it is known that we are not under a higher end
- freeze.
- The KSA that we did today is not also a higher end freeze.
- These are simply tactics that the council are doing because again, our friends up in
- Indianapolis on Capitol Avenue has decided to make sure that we do this.
- So we are trying to do this as much as we can.
- I guess whether we like it or not, we're doing it.
- But I just want to make sure that we are talking about that we don't have a higher end freeze.
- So I just want to make sure because I got a couple of people that reached out and asked
- what was this.
- So to be clear, there is no higher end freeze.
- The other aspect is whether we like public comment, whether that's the good, the bad,
- the ugly with that and if you've probably heard me say that this evening, I say that
- for a reason because we know sometimes people come in and we'll have, we've seen a whole
- play of public comment and whether we liked it or not in the middle of a storm, we got
- it.
- However, we didn't dispel that and we didn't just dismiss it and try to figure out a way
- not to stop people from coming in.
- That is what democracy looks like and we should be making sure that every single person that
- wants to come into any type of government meeting, whether it's a board or commission,
- whether it's our particular meetings, will be heard.
- So I will never, ever, ever, somebody could come in today and say, "Jennifer, I don't
- like your hair today," and that's fine.
- And as long as we are not personally being attacked, but there are things that we've
- heard in public comment, and I think all of us can attest to this, where we might not
- know what is happening until that public comment has said it.
- So I appreciate public comment, and I caution anybody that wants to try to change that to
- think twice before you do something that you will deeply regret.
- So that's my comment on that.
- My last comment, since I love talking about governor's office so much, is the fact that
- I went to the Beckwith Town Hall, Lieutenant Governor Beckwith Town Hall, and it did not
- disappoint at all.
- I got exactly what I thought I was going to get, which was a lot of chaos.
- I personally had a conversation very briefly with the lieutenant governor, and as a black
- individual, I just want to say I am not reasoning or siding with anybody that thinks that people
- that look like me are three-fifths of a person, period.
- I cannot deal with that at all.
- I know that we've had some colleagues in the city that have said that they are very grateful
- for that conversation.
- I'm not certain what I heard that was grateful, because I also know that I didn't hear anything
- that basically said this is what I'm going to do here from Monroe County.
- I just heard chaos, and I heard I'm doubling down.
- I also heard the fact that I challenged him in addition to his three-fifths compromise
- or compliment, because it's definitely not a dang-on compliment.
- I said, because I don't know if any of y'all have realized, I've not seen the lieutenant
- governor, nor have I seen the governor come down and assess the damage, and I also talked
- to emergency management and thought we heard anything from them.
- They look at all the news, and they get all the news sources.
- My response that I got back is when I asked the question of, "Where are you?
- Where were you?
- Where are you coming?" is I've never been invited to come down.
- Now, again, I know my role on here is I'm just four years old on this county council,
- but I do know that natural disasters have happened, and I've never heard of people who
- are in the thick of cleanup have to stop what they're doing and go call somebody and say,
- "Can you come down?
- Can you go take a look?"
- So I am not going to be the person that talks in the hot air, I'm going to say, "Hey, guess
- what?
- Well, consider yourself invited."
- So I invited him last week, I invited him with an email, and I still have yet to hear
- from Mr. Beckwith or Mr. Braun.
- So if anybody knows and anybody looks at this meeting, please know that the invitation is
- out there.
- I will continue to follow up.
- Our constituents are looking for this, my constituents are looking for this.
- You want to talk about that, you want to come down and look at things and do things together,
- let's talk, let's go to work.
- So I just want to just put that out there.
- So again, I'm not saying I'm grateful for the conversation, however, I guess I am thankful
- I had the courage to go up to somebody with wild beliefs to say, "This is what we need."
- So if we're going to work together on that, let's do that and let's talk.
- So that's all I got to say about that.
- I could say a lot more, but my mom used to say if I don't have anything nice to say,
- don't say it at all.
- So I'm not.
- So with that being said, oh yeah, one last thing is, it's graduation this upcoming weekend,
- North and South graduates and all graduates of MCCSE.
- So I just want to say thank you to all the teachers that are dealing with a lot of stuff,
- school just ended, graduating seniors, you are about to go out into the world and unknown
- and it's crazy, but I just want to say thank you.
- And I take that as a privilege because I have a graduating senior that's going to happen.
- So with that being said, congratulations to everybody.
- And with that, we did a good job with our meeting tonight.
- It wasn't four hours and we are adjourned.
- Thank you.
- ("Pomp and Circumstance")